"Who rules East Europe commands the Heartland,
Who rules the Heartland commands the World-Island,
Who rules the World-Island and the various Choke points commands the world"
"Force does not reveal to the victim the strength of his adversary,it invests the victims with patience"
Honesty, integrity, ethics, morality, Truth just might be a more effective path to real Justice.
USA is yet much too drunk of its own illusions to see the writings on the walls Worldwide.

Wednesday, March 6, 2013

China and India should stop fretting...

China and India should stop
fretting...By M K Bhadrakumar

As the world weighs the
significance of President Barack Obama's cabinet appointments of John Kerry and
Chuck Hagel as the secretaries of state and defense, it's clear that a varied
list of countries - China, Russia, Iran, Israel, Turkey, the Philippines - are
going to be more affected than others.

China appears quietly pleased
that Kerry has cast aspersions on the United States' "pivot" to Asia. Russia
would like to estimate that Kerry and Hagel are good for a revival of the
"reset" of the bilateral relationship, except that it can't be sure yet. Iran
and Israel are getting mixed signals, while Turkey gets a lousy feeling that it
is holding the Syrian baby. And the Philippines feels a little bit lonesome in
the South China Sea.

All in all, angst wells up in the bosom when
something new is struggling to be born and uncertainty surrounds how good or bad
it could be. The point is, the American economy is in distress; the world
situation is turbulent and dangerous; the locus of world power is shifting; the
US' capacity to "lead" is in difficulty; and most important, it is beginning to
dawn on the American mind that an historic transition is under way. In sum, a
long sunset has begun.

A sinking feelingBy all accounts, the
Indian pundits too are gripped with anxiety. Some key assumptions on which the
country's regional strategies were predicated through the past decade are being
called into question.

Gnawing doubts arise as to what Kerry and Hagel
signify for India's interests. The heart of the matter is that these powerful
statesmen broadly share a world view that discounts the real worth of military
force for the advancement of the US's global reach and influence.

In a
manner of speaking, Kerry and Hagel are doing a favor to the Indians by making
them realize a few home truths. India's internal problems are mounting and there
is great urgency to reset the national priorities. India too needs an
Obama-style re-prioritization of national policies.

More than
priorities, this is also a matter of self-awareness of the limitations of power
in the contemporary world situation. Some inspiring views have been articulated
by Hagel and Kerry about the efficacy of solving regional issues through
military force, and, more important, on the preference to "engage" adversaries
in a calm and rational manner.

Meanwhile, Hagel has been dragged into a
storm in an Indian tea cup over a previously unreleased 2011 speech that he made
at Oklahoma's Cameron University, which was been brought to light by a US
website with conservative leanings just as his appointment as defense secretary
was about to be confirmed by the US Senate last Tuesday. Hagel apparently said,
inter alia, in a wide-ranging speech:

"India for some time has always used Afghanistan as
a second front, and India has over the years financed problems for Pakistan on
that side of the border. And you can carry that into many dimensions, the point
being [that] the tense, fragmented relationship between Pakistan and Afghanistan
has been there for many, many years."

The
Indian pundits are hopping mad. But then, this is not the first time that such a
thing has been openly said. Way back in September 2009, then American (and North
Atlantic Treaty Organization) commander in Afghanistan, General Stanley
McChrystal made an assessment for the then secretary of defense Robert Gates
that "increasing Indian influence in Afghanistan is likely to exacerbate
regional tensions and encourage Pakistani countermeasures in Afghanistan or
India."

The American officials are au fait with the decades old
Indian mantra of a "second front" vis-a-vis Pakistan, but in the prevailing
circumstances of Western military presence in the Hindu Kush, would have
credited Indian policymakers with the discerning capacity to know what not to
do.

Suffice to say, Hagel's 2011 speech had nothing stunningly new to
it. However, the "course correction" of great interest to Indian interests lies
somewhere else - what Kerry might have hinted in relation to America's
"rebalancing" in Asia.

In the course of his Senate hearing, Kerry voiced
support for the rebalancing policy, but added a caveat that he isn't convinced
that increasing the US' military influence is critical yet, and pointing out
that the US already has more bases in the region than any other nation. He also
took note that Beijing is concerned about the increased number of US marines
based in Australia. Kerry said:

"The Chinese ask what the United States is doing.
'They try to encircle us, what's going on' - and so every action has its
reaction. We have to think thoughtfully about not creating a threat when there
isn't one and understand where we can find bases for cooperation. I am not
talking about retreating, I am simply trying to think about how we do this, not
creating the reaction you don't like to create".

It was never quite realistic to imagine that the US was wedded to a
Cold-War style containment strategy toward China, or that India would have a key
role to play as the US's partner in the vast "Indo-Pacific" region (stretching
from the Strait of Hormuz to Vanuatu), which Indian pundits unilaterally claim
as their country's sphere of influence.

A new traction Maybe,
Hagel and Kerry disappoint them. But what saves the day for Delhi today is, that
the policymakers "anticipated" Kerry even before he expressed the need to
revisit the rebalancing policy. The National Security Advisor Shiv Shankar Menon
in a candid speech at Delhi on Monday before an audience of "China-watchers"
took the bull by the horns:

"I have made it clear that in my opinion talk of
Sino-Indian maritime rivalry is overdone and that it is not inevitable… In
geopolitical terms, and in terms of the naval capabilities of the different
navies other than the US that operates between Suez and Hawaii, this
[Indo-Pacific] space still consists of three distinct areas: the Indian Ocean,
the western Pacific, and the seas near China, (namely, the South China Sea, the
East Sea and the Sea of Japan).

"Both India and China have a common
interest in keeping the sea lines of communication through the Indian and
Pacific Oceans open… Over the last decade an Indian presence in the waters east
of Malacca and a Chinese presence west of Malacca have become the new norm. Both
have happened simultaneously and without apparent friction. These are natural
consequences of the development of India and China, and of their increasing
dependence on the world as their economies globalize.

"The reason I
cavil about calling the Indo-Pacific one space is because if we do, there is a
danger of prescribing one medicine for the different security ailments that
afflict the Indian Ocean, the seas near China, and the western
Pacific."

In retrospect, India's
policymakers have done well to decline the persuasive invitation extended to it
by Washington to be a "linchpin" in "America's Pacific Century" - to borrow the
title of Hillary Clinton's famous article in the Foreign Affairs magazine
written just 16 months ago. [1]

2012 stands out as having been a truly
transformative year in the Sino-Indian normalization. True, the intractable
border dispute remains unsettled; China's Tibetan wound festers; China's all
weather friendship with Pakistan worries (albeit less and less) - yet, a new
traction is coming into the India-China engagement. India has become China's
single biggest market for "project exports", trade is on an upward curve,
high-level exchanges are frequent, and the top officials have begun
acknowledging that the two countries may have more in agreement over the
emerging world order than what might separate them. Indeed, the latest evidence
of the new traction is the proposal from Beijing to commence a structured
"Afghan dialogue" with Delhi.

How does it all add up? What is there in
it for India in the Obama-era US Asian strategies? Actually, there could be a
lot if only India is geared up for it.

Only last week, the
government-owned China Daily newspaper wrote that the US policies may create
"friction" in Sino-American ties, but Washington "needs" cooperation - "The US
needs cooperation with China, and vice versa, as cooperation helps promote the
economic interests of both countries … The huge Chinese market potential will
undoubtedly serve as an anchor for bilateral trade. If US exports to China grow
by 12% annually over the next four years, a total of 143,000 jobs could be
created in the US."

What emerges is also that India lags far behind
China in figuring out the logarithm (after tabling the entries) of what is on
the mind of Kerry and Hagel - and Obomba...& the US ZOG Infamous White House Murder INC,...

Elie, HK RIP we will for ever love you so very much

"It does not require a majority to prevail, but rather an irate, tireless minority keen to set brush fires in people's minds..." - Samuel Adams

HK For EVER

RIP For Ever a HERO

Elie , RIP !

With tears in their eyes and flowers in their hands people paid tribute to their national hero. Sad at the loss, which can not be compensated yet pride was all over their faces,sacrificed their son of the soil. His was a death for a noble cause of dying for one's own country. Such men are not born everyday, they belong to the rare class of humanity, who are an example in themselves, and they are the ones who set precedents. Mr. Elie HOBEIKA, HK,is an unprecedented Leader, a Hero, and a Legend for ever.